Out-of-pocket costs are capped at $5,950 a person, and there are limits on how much rates can vary with age.
"We have no idea how much rates will go up by and how quickly, so now taking a five-year fix where the rates look good value makes a lot of sense," Montlake said.
The stamp, which will go on sale on April 12 at 41 cents, will remain valid for sending a first-class letter no matter how much rates go up in the future.
Insurers and health policy experts say young adults could face higher premiums because of a provision that limits how much rates can vary based on a person's age.
It is hard to know quite how much rates would rise without a government backstop, but the housing market is in an upswing and affordability remains high, so it seems likely that the housing sector would continue to recover even with higher rates from both changes in housing finance and the Federal Reserve's eventual normalization of monetary policy.
To see how much rates would have to rise before it becomes cheaper to rent, Trulia updated its "rent vs. buy" analysis to reflect home prices and rents (based on properties listed for sale and for rent on Trulia) from March, April and May.
It's impossible to speculate how much rates will go up, he says.
He notes that more than 30percentt of homeowners with adjustable rate mortgages were not even aware of crucial terms of their loan, like how much their rate could rise, the Federal Reserve found.
And with short-term interest rates at their lowest levels in 40 years, Mr. Roach said he did not know how much difference rate cuts will make.
